


Liz

by Riverrock32



Category: Wentworth (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 18:08:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18555046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riverrock32/pseuds/Riverrock32
Summary: A saddened goodbye





	Liz

They were all sitting at the common room table, idly drinking tea and generally fidgeting. Prison was a boring place…especially when the television privileges had been cut indefinitely. They were all left dangling, the last fragments of information burned into their minds just before the feed was cut.

Franky. Shot.

Ms. Miles casually shrugged off their loud protests.

Won’t be long now.

But it was. An endless, boring eternity of waiting for any scrap of news to come their way. For the Governor to appear and announce Franky’s demise. The brawler screeching heavily to a halt over brown stone and giving birth to a recently subdued lifer. Anything.

Boomer was especially peaked with the stress of it all. If anyone so much as looked at Franky’s old cell, she’d bark them away. It wasn’t to be touched.

Or looked at.

Liz fiddled with her cup and watched her tea gently lap the sides of her cup. She wondered if the shrine for Franky would be placed alongside Bea’s. The section of fence would be the fence of fallen Top Dogs. Her heart clenched when she almost snorted. She didn’t want to think of these things. There was so much plaguing her mind. This prison was to be her tomb, and she doubted a shrine would be built at all when she finally copped it. 

Sonja. The old devil. The frighteningly calm, frighteningly evil force. She was worse than Ferguson. She used charm and class and a forked tongue. Liz just wanted to be rid of her, however it may end.

And she was afraid. Every move she made was watched and manipulated and used to humiliate or abuse. And the reasoning was so unclear… so unfair! She’d been set up, used as a patsy in a failed attempt for acquittal. Now it seemed, because she knew the truth behind that smug little smirk, her life was forfeit. She’d made a move. Sonja made a move. They were even, Liz reckoned. Each had made an attempt on the other’s life. Each had failed. With their errors came an even more perilous game for Liz. The stakes were higher; Sonja was the devil, and she would always be danger.

Liz was afraid constantly…paranoid and frustrated and confused and just fucking afraid. If she let her guard down for even an instant she would fall apart. As she gripped her cup, she though miserably that this was the first time she didn’t have the comfort and safety of a Top Dog living in her unit. Things just didn’t happen in H Block because both Franky and Bea hadn’t allowed it. Liz had always been safe…surrounded by strength and in Franky’s case, a fierce love. Granted her time had been more stressful under Franky than under Bea, and most of it was the same shit, different dog. She didn’t agree with everything, but she hadn’t ever been afraid. Not like this. NEVER like this.

Kaz was…trying…but her handle on the women was weak at best. She had started her reign too soft; too gentle…to really gain control now. She was more like the royalty of Britain…pomp and show and a liaison between the people and the real authorities. Love and respect in a name alone. With the prison teetering on anarchy, Liz had little faith in a name.

And Kaz was three units away. What’s more, there was no bond between her and Liz. It was not even on her radar to single out Liz and pointedly protect her. Most everyone had it in their mind that Liz was off her rocker, anyway. A lagger. A chump. And alchie. No one believed that the threat to her life was real. No one.

Except Franky.

And if the brunette didn’t believe her, it didn’t matter. She’d seen the abject desperation on Liz’s face when she begged for help. Yes, she’d asked Franky, right before the younger woman’s escape, to help her. To protect her from the cruel vendetta haunting her every move. Franky had held her, and Liz wept into the strong arms. Franky would always be a leader to her. There wasn’t room in her vibrant soul for anything less. But Liz had seen the distant look in Franky’s eyes just before she focused on the older woman. She had been distracted by something big…her brilliant mind wrestling her own demons. She had snapped into focus when Liz had collapsed into her, begging her to help. She had held onto her and whispered words of comfort and promise.

Yes, Franky was a match for Sonia. More than. There hadn’t been a Top Dog like her. Not even Bea. Franky was never distracted by frilly blonde things. Her active mind bored easily. She was intelligent almost to the point of wicked… Until Ms. Westfall came. But then again, she was no frilly blonde thing. If anyone could handle Sonia, it was Franky, and for the first time in weeks Liz had felt herself relax.

And she was no longer afraid.

She didn’t know what Franky had done, but in the days that followed, Sonja had left her alone. Liz once caught her staring at Franky from a distance, a pensive curiosity on her face. A respect. A simmering, rather grudging respect.

And she’d left Liz alone.

But Franky wasn’t going to stay. She was actively planning to escape and Liz knew she could do it. Knew that she WOULD do it. There was a rather large part of her that wanted to beg her to stay, much like she begged for protection in the garden. But when she went to Franky that evening, without a clear goal, her heart melted at the sight of the younger woman. Like an albatross, she didn’t belong within these walls. She never did. Caging her wild nature had only served to make her even more wild.

But then, like most love stories, it was a woman who gentled her soul. The change was gradual, like a flower slow to bloom or a flame just flickering to life. Whatever Ms. Westfall was, she was the catalyst to that flame, and Franky had never been the same. Looking at her then, caged in teal once more, Liz couldn’t bring herself to corrupt her plans to run. To try anything to clear her name and seek her freedom. She just couldn’t.

So she lied. She faked a brave face and though she was certain the sharp younger woman hugging her saw right through it, there was a gratitude in her piercing green eyes. She would stay if Liz asked her to. That had been enough for Liz to let her go.

But when she was gone it had gotten worse. Like a Hydra, Sonia’s snakelike behaviors multiplied with each blow, and a more vicious, horrible creature arose. Boomer was wretchedly attached to her, and seemed teetering on the edge of bashing Liz every moment. Allie was…sweet, but clearly unhelpful. There was no real power behind their friendship. Liz was once again alone.

And fucking afraid.

The only real solace bit her sharply with remorse when she learned that Franky had been shot. That she very well might be dragged back into this concrete hell for the rest of her life. Liz choked on her bitter regret for yearning for such a thing. For the safety of having Franky back.

Ms. Miles banged on the cell block bars and dragged it open, jerking the three of them from their thoughts.

“Come on. The governor wants to see you.”

Allie raised her head from her arm. “What, all of us?”

“What for?” There was a sharpness in Boomer’s voice. There was really only one reason for the Governor to ask for the three of them together. Just the one…and they’d been sitting anxiously for days waiting for it.

Ms. Miles didn’t answer, and they carefully avoided each other’s eyes as they rose collectively and followed her down the halls. Even Boomer, loathe to be in any category alongside Liz, shuffled in silence. Their love for Franky was all they had left in common, and it seemed like even that was about to be taken away.

But it wasn’t the Governor’s office they were brought to. It was the visitor’s center. They all shuffled in with confusion and a little apprehension and then there she was. Smiling. Beaming at them, wearing clothes indicative of a free woman.

Franky.

As Allie clapped her hands over her mouth in delighted surprise and Boomer rush forward…Liz was flooded with relief and pride…and then visibly deflated. She could only stand there as her face crumpled. Her tears were hot and heavy and most unwelcome. Too many emotions and thoughts crushed her mind. She watched in slow motion as her little mouse was engulfed in Boomer’s embrace. She watched Allie pounce, laughing with joy. She saw a pleased Vera and a smiling Ms. Westfall. And when she wept, it was for more than the overwhelming joy she felt for Franky. It was for herself.

It wasn’t fair.

A quick, cursed thought. Franky deserved her freedom…she had been through so much! Her redemption story would remain the most blinding against-all-odds tale ever told. In these moments, it was almost easy to forget that prison had hardened her. Had made her cruel. Had spun her out of control on so many occasions it had only been Liz standing up to her...sliding ever so gently between Franky and her target...that stopped her forward motion. The secrets Liz kept for her!

Exonerated as she was, Franky Doyle was a murderer. Meg Jackson died a horrific death by her hand in the belly of this prison. The child prisoner Liz was forced to watch OD because Franky wanted the drugs in her system. The brutal beatings. The drug trade. Redemption for the present had not been easy for her...but her past was a secret that she shared only with Liz. She had been callous and cruel, and she WAS a murderer.

But she loved. And she guarded. Not out of need, like the others. Out of love. She could save Liz if she asked. She could…and would. Maybe. How long before she asked? How long should she let Franky revel in her new life outside these walls before asking her to willingly drag herself back? How long?

Save me.

So Liz only stood there and wept until Franky had grabbed her and demanded to be held…as if Liz could ever refuse. She clutched her and squeezed her eyes shut and wept. Franky made it and she herself never would. She would die in prison. Two chances for freedom. Both stolen from her. Where Franky had succeeded, she herself had failed.

It took all she had to not press her lips into Franky’s ear.

Help me. Please.

It’s not fair.

Oh little mouse.

My little mouse.

Save me.


End file.
